Friday, November 25, 2011

Lordy, Lordy, Lordy - Recording

Paul setting up pro-tools

I've been trying to hammer the recording lately to get this goddamn record finished. I've recorded about 6 times over the last couple of weeks, twice doing demo's for 'trouble' & 'let me count the ways I love you' & the other times recording and re-recording the guitar parts for 'In the meantime'. It's the opening track on the album so is vitally important that it has an immediate impact. The good thing about the work that I've done so far is that I've come to an understanding about what I want. It'll be a double guitar track with one doing lead and the other rhythm. It sounds good but I just haven't been able to get the guitar sound I'm after. It's either too fuzzy, or too clean, or too hollow, everything except what I can hear in my head. I'm heading back in tomorrow to keep trying. It's been a frustrating couple of weeks doing the same track over & over again. As you can see we've been trying a few different recording techniques to get a decent guitar sound:

But nothings working yet. I really want to get this record finished by my birthday, March 1, so will keep persevering until I get the sound I'm after. Once this is done it's just the guitar parts for Secret Garden & Only a fool. Once that's done it's a clear run to the end with BV's and mixing. God, I'll be so glad once this is finished!

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Meow Cafe - 05 November 2011

Played Meow Cafe last night in support of the Rodrigo Brothers. The boys just wanted someone to play some tunes after their gig so they could sit back & relax with their crew so I played a 10 track set that was fairly low key:

It's all just a joke anyway
This old house
Do it right
Only a fool
Poison tree
The old man and the sea
I remember
Trouble
Together, Forever
Let me count the ways I love you

I thought I played alright, my voice was surprisingly sharp considering I haven't gigged in a couple of months. It usually takes a while for my vocals to warm up but I felt good right off the bat. I played alright too, it helped that it wasn't 'my' night so there was nothing to be nervous about, I just jumped up & played. I'm still a few songs short of a good hour long consistantly good set. I have the songs but without help I'm limited with what song choices I can choose. For example I can't play most of the Pisces tunes because they need the full band to flesh them out & a lot of my solo tunes are quite delicate and requires the listener to really be paying attention. I think I need about three really strong solo songs that I can play when my audience starts to drift. At the moment I'm struggling to hold a pub audience for a full set. It's different in a more intimate setting but it's not always going to be like that. It just means I need to go up another level and find some bigger songs.

Overall I give the set a 6/10. Some good moments but it also showed a lack of substance in some of the songs when I'm playing in a louder 'pub' type atmosphere.

It was a fun show